


Festive Attire

by LyingTurtle



Series: Goddard Business Casual [1]
Category: Wolf 359 - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Vague allusions to Squad Bonding, Very soft one sided crush, set directly after Happy Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 11:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13569924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyingTurtle/pseuds/LyingTurtle
Summary: Set directly after the Missions Mishaps Happy Holidays, Jacobi and Maxwell discuss the best course of action while Kepler has a gift for one of them.





	Festive Attire

**Author's Note:**

> So this is part of a new series of short works I'm calling Goddard Business Casual, featuing short bits of the SI-5 team before and during the space launch. The works range in topic and degree of humor and seriousness but all play off the same sort of head cannons. New stuff is on the way shortly, hope you enjoy!

“So… Any idea how you'll go dress shopping?” Jacobi asks as Maxwell types furiously at the keyboard across from him. They had both just failed miserably at getting out of the obligatory holiday from hell party and now we're reeling with the after effects. 

“Bag it, borrow it, steal it. If it weren't nine o’clock at night option one would be best. There are approximately three women I know well enough to let me borrow a dress and one of them is Rachel Young and the other two are home for the night so that's not happening. And as much as I'd love to plan out a high stakes search and retrieval mission on the nearest Macy’s, there is only two hours and it's a forty minute drive both way” she tapped the last key the hardest and then rolled her chair back from her computer.

“So what's behind curtain number four?”

“... Do you remember the Chantilly hotel?” Her face pinched together at her brow with annoyance at the recollection. Jacobi had to think a moment, having stayed in more than the average amount of hotels. “Remember the car you blew up in the parking garages” Jacobi knit his hands together, having blown up more than the average amount of cars. “Remember the guy who thought you were a prostitute?” 

“Shit, I had forgotten about that! He put me in handcuffs then Kepler beat him to death with a golf club. That was… Actually that was a pretty good time for me”

“Yeah well it wasn't for the rest of us. But I still have that dress”

“Are you sure you really want to wear that? I mean it's a party but it's an office party. That's a pretty, uh, fitted piece of clothing”

“It's all I have Jacobi! I haven't bought a dress since junior prom of high school and every other time I wear a dress it gets at least three different blood types on it by the end of the night”

“Huh. Yeah I guess you only lost your panties that night”

“Hey! We promised never to talk about that!”  
By the time Kepler walked out of his office he found his subordinates grappling with one another across the short amount of desk that separated them, one arm grabbing each other while they used the other to throw erasers and other various office supplies across the monitors.

“Truly I have no judgements in my choice of employment. Please continue to make me reevaluate every decision I've made regarding the two of you” begrudgingly the pulled apart, Maxwell clearing her throat and picking up her bag before bidding them a good night. Jacobi was about to do the same when Kepler stopped him.

“Wait, I have something for you in my office” Jacobi resisted the urge to sigh, getting the feeling it was going to be a longer and more time wasting lecture on behavior. He always seemed to get the short end of the stick with that.

“Oh boy, what could it be, sir” he couldn't hide the disdain as Kepler went behind his desk and pulled out something black and folded, encased in a plastic slip that most definitely came from a dry cleaner. “What is this?” He asked honestly, confused as Kepler handed it to him without much ado.

“While I am absolutely disappointed in your lack of initiative with this assignment, I'm also more than fairly certain that you don't own a suit at all. So instead of you embarrassing me vicariously and showing up in a T-shirt, you can have this”  
Jacobi opened the small piece of tape keeping the plastic together, looking inside just to make sure he wasn't being completely plunked.

“It's a suit” he stated obviously.

“Yes… I just said that”

“You got me a suit?”

“I did not get you anything” he snapped defensively, “I had an older one that I should have gotten rid of some time ago so instead of the garbage it's going to you” even with the denial, Jacobi couldn't help but feel the intense crippling awkwardness of receiving a gift from him.

“Thank you?”

“Most people say that without sounding like they're under duress” that actually got a laugh from the younger man, partly out of anxiousness but also just genuinely finding it funny.

“Sorry” he chuckled, not looking up to meet his eyes, “Thank you. I appreciate this. I don't appreciate being forced to go to this party and I'd honestly rather be anywhere else. But I appreciate this”  
Kepler smiled, just a little but it was still something.

“Get changed, you're going to need to go help Maxwell I'm sure”

“Did you get her a dress too?”

“Jacobi, why would I own a dress? Do not make that face at me, I am your superior officer and I will drown you in eggnog if I see you thinking about it again” he shuts the door, leaving Jacobi to wonder whether or not he should call an ambulance for the erratic beating in his chest.

Kepler gave him a suit. One of his suits. Somehow that just made him want to throw it in the trash, take a match to the whole thing, then run away screaming from the emotions suddenly filling his chest. But he didn't have matches on him.  
He wasn't surprised to see that it fit, though he'd wear it regardless of if it did. How long had it even been since he wore a proper suit? He didn't exactly have what some would say a traditional interview process, unless most people met their bosses by being picked up at bars. 

He shrugged on the jacket, tilting his face I to the collar. It smelled like Kepler. Not in the way it was dirty or old, but there was that faint lingering scent of his person upon it. Jacobi shut his eyes, allowing a moment to just feel every emotion prickling his skin and picking up his heart rate.

There was something about possession that felt like a shadow upon him. That expectation to always do what was expected, always perform better than everyone else, always be better than the time before. But there was also that sense of protection, belonging. Kepler would always be there to fix whatever mess he got himself into, always keeping an eye on him, always just a little too nosy and overbearing in a way that used to make him uncomfortable but now felt like the biggest compliment he could get.

Everyone in the lab knew to some extent that he belonged somewhere else. The way they looked at him and Maxwell, like they were trying to catch a fleeting glimpse of something, was nothing compared to how they looked at him and Kepler. As though this was something only he could do, special enough to warrant attention, skilled enough to gain respect, like he was something more than just a guy who used to be disposable when push came to shove.

Jacobi ran a hand over his chest and to his side, feeling the shirt like an extension of Kepler. Even with the threats and the punishments, it was nothing compared to the way his heart stopped at every praise or his lungs refused to work when Kepler looked at him like he was admiring something he had made with his own two hands. There was something powerful and awful caught between them, equal parts devotion as it was resistance, satisfaction no matter which way the scale tipped. “Did you choke yourself on the tie?” Kepler asked accompanied by two sharp knocks. Jacobi looked down into the bag, shit there was a tie after all.

“I, uh, don't know how” he could see the loops and pulls necessary but his hands seemed to refuse to work. False, he could do it if he tried, but he liked the scenario where he didn't better.

“Jacobi, have I told you how truly disappointed I am with you?” Kepler sighed, entering the room with no real malice.

“Only every day” Jacobi smirked, watching as he pulled the tie out of the bag and then looped it around his neck, pulling roughly to even the ends before his hands moved up to his throat and pulled it through. He swallowed roughly, the warmth of his hands seeming almost too human,

“There. Now is there anything you need to get out of your system before we head down? Any witty remark you're just dying to be known? I'll give you the next ten seconds for solid complaining if you just suck it up and put on a good performance tonight” Kepler was close enough to where Jacobi felt like if he leaned in now he could get one kiss in before he was punched out so hard he'd wake up a week later. The warmth of his hands still lingered on his neck, the softness of the whole ordeal making him melt inside.

“No, I'm alright” he flicked his eyes up and held Keplers dialated gaze, “I'm not complaining”


End file.
